Every Egyptian Arabic noun belongs to one of two grammatical genders: masculine or feminine. With people, gender often matches the person's sex, as in ولد “boy” and بنت “girl.” With objects and ideas, it is simply a property of the word: كتاب “book” is masculine, while شنطة “bag” is feminine.
English usually says this, new, and arrived without changing them for a noun's gender. Egyptian makes gender visible through demonstratives, adjectives, pronouns, and sometimes verbs. This page uses those forms only as diagnostics for the noun; their full syntax belongs on the linked adjective and demonstrative pages. Unless marked otherwise, the examples represent mainstream Cairene (informal) usage.
The core two-gender system
The safest learning habit is to store a noun with a small agreement frame, not as an isolated translation. Learn الكتاب ده جديد “this book is new,” not merely كتاب “book.”
| Class | Noun | Demonstrative test | Adjective test |
|---|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | كتاب “book” | الكتاب ده | كتاب جديد |
| feminine singular | شنطة “bag” | الشنطة دي | شنطة جديدة |
| masculine human | ولد “boy” | الولد ده | ولد صغير |
| feminine human | بنت “girl” | البنت دي | بنت صغيرة |
الكتاب ده جديد.
il-kitāb da gidīd.
This book is new.
الشنطة دي جديدة.
ish-shanṭa di gidīda.
This bag is new.
The noun selects the entire frame: masculine ده، جديد with كتاب, but feminine دي، جديدة with شنطة. The ending ـة is a strong feminine clue, though it is not a guarantee.
Human nouns: meaning and morphology work together
Many words for people come in a masculine–feminine pair. A productive feminine form often adds ـة, and each form can build its own plural.
| Meaning | Masculine singular | Feminine singular | Masculine plural | Feminine plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| employee | موظف | موظفة | موظفين | موظفات |
| Egyptian | مصري | مصرية | مصريين | مصريات |
| teacher | مدرس | مدرسة | مدرسين | مدرسات |
The table is a useful pattern, not a machine that generates every noun. بنت “girl” is feminine without ـة, and the plural of ولد is ولاد, not a regular suffix form.
الولد ده صغير، والبنت دي صغيرة.
il-walad da ṣughayyar, wil-bint di ṣughayyara.
This boy is young, and this girl is young.
الموظفين الجداد وصلوا.
il-muwaẓẓafīn il-gudād wiṣlu.
The new employees arrived. (men or a mixed group)
The masculine plural can include an all-male group or a mixed group (neutral everyday usage). موظفات explicitly identifies an all-female group. Socially inclusive alternatives and professional naming practices vary by institution and speaker; that is a usage question, not evidence that noun gender has disappeared.
Nonhuman nouns still have gender
Objects have no biological sex, but their nouns still control singular agreement. The contrast between the sun and moon is a memorable pair: شمس is feminine, while قمر is masculine. Neither word carries the common ـة clue.
الشمس دي قوية النهارده.
ish-shams di ʾawiyya innahārda.
The sun is strong today.
القمر ده واضح قوي.
il-ʾamar da wāḍiḥ ʾawi.
The moon is really clear.
English gives you no reliable clue here. Learn the gender as part of the lexical entry. The lexical gender page organizes the most frequent markerless nouns.
Gender and number are separate
A singular noun has lexical gender. Once it becomes plural, the shape of the plural and the agreement it triggers are additional facts. Human plurals normally trigger genuine plural agreement. Nonhuman plurals often trigger feminine singular agreement, especially in careful or edited usage; everyday Egyptian also permits plural agreement with many concrete, salient items (informal; speaker- and discourse-sensitive).
الكتب الجديدة وصلت.
il-kotob il-gidīda wiṣlit.
The new books arrived. (feminine singular agreement with a nonhuman plural)
العمال الجداد وصلوا.
il-ʿummāl il-gudād wiṣlu.
The new workers arrived. (plural agreement with humans)
The plural كتب does not become “feminine” in its dictionary entry. Rather, the plural noun phrase belongs to a nonhuman agreement pattern. See human and nonhuman plurals for the variation; at A1, simply do not carry the singular gender mechanically into every plural sentence.
Rich noun morphology without everyday case endings
Egyptian retains gender, multiple plural types, dual forms, and productive derivation. What it no longer uses productively in ordinary conversation is the MSA case system: there is no everyday alternation such as nominative ـُ versus accusative ـَ, and indefinite nouns do not receive spoken tanwīn.
اشتريت كتاب جديد.
ishtarēt kitāb gidīd.
I bought a new book.
كتاب has the same everyday form whether it is a subject, object, or follows a preposition. Gender remains active even though case endings have disappeared. A formal MSA sentence (formal) may show or imply case distinctions; code-switching into that register is legitimate, but it is not the colloquial paradigm.
A short noun-phrase exchange
الشنطة الجديدة فين؟ جنب الباب، والكتاب على الترابيزة.
ish-shanṭa il-gidīda fēn? gamb il-bāb, wil-kitāb ʿala t-tarābēza.
Where's the new bag? By the door, and the book is on the table.
The literal first clause is “the new bag where?” Egyptian needs no present-tense equivalent of English is. The noun's gender still appears on الجديدة.
Common Mistakes
1. Using feminine forms with a masculine noun.
❌ الكتاب دي جديدة.
Incorrect — كتاب is masculine, so both the demonstrative and adjective are feminine by mistake.
✅ الكتاب ده جديد.
il-kitāb da gidīd.
This book is new.
2. Using masculine forms with a feminine noun.
❌ الشنطة ده جديد.
Incorrect — شنطة is feminine.
✅ الشنطة دي جديدة.
ish-shanṭa di gidīda.
This bag is new.
3. Ignoring gender on an unmarked human noun.
❌ البنت صغير.
Incorrect — بنت is feminine even though it does not end in ة.
✅ البنت صغيرة.
il-bint ṣughayyara.
The girl is young.
4. Predicting an ordinary plural by adding a convenient suffix.
❌ الكتابات على الترابيزة.
Incorrect for ‘the books’ — كتابات means writings or pieces of writing, not the ordinary plural of كتاب.
✅ الكتب على الترابيزة.
il-kotob ʿala t-tarābēza.
The books are on the table.
5. Adding MSA tanwīn to ordinary Egyptian speech.
❌ جبت كتابا جديدا.
Incorrect hybrid — the Egyptian verb does not license written case endings on the following nouns.
✅ جبت كتاب جديد.
gibt kitāb gidīd.
I got a new book.
Key Takeaways
- Every singular noun is masculine or feminine, including nouns for objects and ideas.
- Use ده/دي and a simple adjective as practical gender diagnostics.
- ـة is a strong feminine clue, but markerless feminine nouns and exceptions must be learned.
- Learn a noun's plural with the noun; gender does not predict the plural mechanically.
- Egyptian preserves rich gender and number morphology without productive everyday case or tanwīn endings.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Feminine Markers ة، اء، ىA1 — How ة، اء، and ى signal feminine nouns in Egyptian Arabic, where the clues are productive, and where they mislead.
- Nouns Whose Gender Must Be LearnedA1 — Learn the gender of common Egyptian Arabic nouns whose endings do not reliably show whether they are masculine or feminine.
- Masculine and Feminine Adjective FormsA1 — Form and choose masculine and feminine Egyptian Arabic adjectives while keeping gender separate from plural and definiteness agreement.
- ده، دي، and دولA1 — Choose the everyday Cairene demonstrative for masculine, feminine, and plural referents, and use it naturally as a pronoun or after a noun phrase.
- Ignoring GenderA2 — Correct gender mismatches in Egyptian pronouns, verbs, adjectives, participles, and demonstratives while recognizing where plural forms merge.